Ghana government to launch interoperability of payment system in January

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said technical works on the interoperability of the payment system has been completed and would be launched in January next year.

He said the implementation of the system would enable persons using mobile phones and traditional bank accounts to communicate and send money across networks to facilitate the formalisation of the economy and promote financial inclusion.

The Vice President said about 70 per cent of the Ghanaians currently are without bank accounts, therefore, the move would make it possible to capture them into the formal economy.

“As a nation, we are supposed to innovate and enhance the growth strategy in order to overcome the fiscal limitations and create jobs and opportunities for all Ghanaians in the digital age, and no Ghanaian should be left behind in the ICT revolution,” he said.

Vice President Bawumia said this at the opening of the 2017 Innovation Week of the Advanced Information Technology Institute of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT in Accra on Tuesday.

The four-day event is on the theme: “Exponential Technologies and Innovation-A Key Enabler for Socio-economic Development,” which attracted Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enthusiasts, researchers, entrepreneurs, teachers and students.

The forum is designed to support the development of ICT and electronic industry in Ghana and provide opportunity for experts and enthusiasts to engage in conversations that would propel the country’s agenda of revolutionising the economy through digitisation.

It seeks to strengthen the linkages between academic and research institutions and industry, and promote competitive ICT and electronic industry in accordance with the Government’s policy of developing global value-added and competitive services and position the nation as a regional ICT hub.

The event also provided a platform to showcase some innovative works of young students like digital products and solutions, mobile applications, robotics and raspberry PI.

The Vice President acknowledged the role played by India by partnering with the Government to establish the ICT Centre and expressed appreciation to the Indian Government for making the project a reality.

He said necessary measures had been outlined to digitise land records next year to resolve the challenges associated with land registration and prevent protracted litigations.

He said the project was a collaborative work between the Government and the World Bank to facilitate easy checking of land titles.

The Vice President said ICT was a powerful tool for sustained and rapid growth, which forward looking leaders had used to solve some real world problems.

He said government would embrace public-private partnership in developing ICT infrastructure and reduce the cost of operations.

“The Government is determined to making Ghana an ICT economy as enshrined in the ICT for Development Policy as part of the road-map of becoming a smart nation.

“Government is promoting electronic governance to facilitate public governance and ensure quality service delivery,” he said.

Vice President Bawumia said the civil service played a crucial role in the governance of the nation and that the deployment of exponential technologies would support in that regard.

“This will improve the efficiency of government services, reduce operational cost and bring governance closer to the people.

“We are bringing governance to the people through e-governance initiatives, which have brought improvement in its day-to-day operations resulting in effectiveness and efficiency,” he added.

He said the implementation of the ICT Policy for Development would ensure the realisation of the vision to transform the nation into an information-rich knowledge-based economy through the development, deployment and exploitation of ICT within the economy and society.

Mr Kwasi Adu-Gyan, the Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, asked government to pass the necessary legislations to make the Centre semi-autonomous to generate sufficient revenue internally to manage its operations.